Gifted’ star Mckenna Grace lights up the screen and livens up an interview

Wednesday

Mar 29, 2017 at 4:09 PMMar 29, 2017 at 4:09 PM

Ed Symkus More Content Now

A few weeks ago, on one of those late-night TV talk shows, some frustrated young actress was going on and on about how there just aren’t enough good parts for women these days. But, hold on. A quick glance on the Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com) under the name Mckenna Grace shows 41 credits, ranging from TV movies (“Marvel’s Most Wanted”) to TV series (“Designated Survivor”) to a soap opera (“The Young and the Restless”) to feature films (“Mr. Church”). She now stars, opposite Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer, in the upcoming feature film “Gifted.”

Oh, one other thing: Mckenna Grace is 10. Playing a brilliant mathematics wizard who becomes the object of a custody battle in “Gifted,” she absolutely steals the film away from her costars. Her character, Mary, doesn’t come across as precocious or overbearing or super sweet. Grace nails the part, portraying Mary as a normal little girl who can laugh and play and have a loving relationship with her guardian uncle (Evans), but who just happens to be, as the title suggests, gifted. She spoke about the film and about her craft by phone from Los Angeles, and proved to be charming, sharp, and insightful.

Q: When did you first have the idea of going into acting?A: I love Shirley Temple, and I’ve always wanted to be like Shirley Temple. But to be completely honest, I’ve also always wanted to be in “The Pee-Wee Herman Show.”

Q: The acting business is pretty crazy, with a lot of ups and downs. Did anyone ever take you aside and give you advice about it?A: Well, my mom told me if you do your best, then you know that you did all you could have done, and you can do anything you put your mind to.

Q: You are very real in the movie. You don’t appear to be acting. And you get to do both funny and serious things. So, are you acting or is that mostly the actual Mckenna on the screen?A: It’s both. It’s acting and it’s me. I enjoy doing serious. It’s fun, but it is acting. And it’s not that hard; it’s only hard when I have to go to a dark place, and get sad.

Q: What was it like the first time you had a discussion about Mary with your director, Marc Webb? Did you have any ideas for how you were going to play her?A: I don’t remember giving him any ideas for Mary, but we had a really great connection when we first met. There was one thing that may have helped me in the audition. They had given me the wrong lines (of dialogue) when I walked in to the director session, and they said, “Oh, no! We’re sorry. Do you want to reschedule?” And I said, “No, just give me about 5 minutes.” Then I did the new lines.

Q: Tell me a little bit about Mary. Introduce her.A: Mary has a lot of things that she struggles with in her life. We all go through a time where we feel like we don’t fit in, that we feel different. That’s how I think we can all relate with Mary. She’s a very emotional little girl. She can make you laugh, she can make you cry, she can make you angry at times. She’s a wonderful character, and I’m not saying that just because I played her. I fell in love with her the first time I read the script.

Q: You have a lot of technical dialogue and you work with complicated equations in the movie. What kind of research did you do for the part?A: I turned all of the equations into songs that I sang inside my head whenever I had to write them down. And I watched a lot of movies to get emotionally prepared for it. Like I watched “Paper Moon,” I watched “Kramer vs. Kramer,” I watched “I Am Sam.” Then whenever I would go on set and do the lines and do the scene a couple of times, Marc might say, “‘Paper Moon,’ Mckenna,” which meant do it more angry. It was fun to have our own little secret language.

Q: How did you find out you got the part in “Gifted?”A: My mom picked up the phone one day, and her jaw dropped. And I said, “What is it? What happened?” She looked over at me and said, “You got ‘Gifted!’” I looked at her and said, “Is this a joke?” I was running around and screaming, “Oh, my gosh!” And I was bawling and bawling. It was one of the best days of my entire life.

Q: How did you celebrate?A: I think I ate a cupcake that night.

Q: There are quite a few videos of you singing your favorite song “Imagine” on YouTube. Are you planning to have a singing career, too?A: Yes, I’ve always wanted to be a singer. And I’ve always wanted to do a musical. Being in a musical is on my bucket list.

“Gifted” opens on April 7.— Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now.